Friday, July 20, 2012

Update to the Colorado Shooting

The number of injured has gone up, although some of the new totals differ; that will likely be finalized soon. While the number of dead has been listed as 12, there appear to be at least two people from the nearby military base who are missing and presumed dead that may not be included in the lower total. One woman who was killed had narrowly avoided being shot in a Canadian mass shooting last month at a mall in Toronto. The Canadian authorities blame the lax U.S. gun laws for their increasing problem with firearms coming across our northern border in speaking about that June 2012 mass shooting.

The assault style rifle has been variously described as an AK 15 or an AK 47.

The information that the (alleged) shooters car had Tennessee plates was incorrect.

The youngest victim was 3 months old; the oldest in their mid-40s, as reported so far.

The shooter apparently had a history of identifying with the villains in comic book hero genre movies. He is reported to have made some statement to law enforcement while being arrested that he was the Joker, a reference to a BatMan villain. It has been reported that the shooter had died his hair either red-orange or orange. The comic book Batman villain Joker has usually been portrayed as having green hair, or yellow-green hair, with a few exceptions, like this example of the Ceaser Romero from the campy 60s Batman series.
His two handguns appear to be .40 Glocks. What does not appear to be true is that he was known to smoke pot, or that he ever had any psychological or mental illness problems. Rather he appears to have been a very shy and quiet but very intelligent man. There is no explanation for his actions so far.
He began acquiring the firearms this past May; it is sitll unconfirmed if the purchases were legally or illegally obtained, what kind of permits if any he may have had, or what kind of training if any that he had.